Nphet: A fourth Covid-19 wave can no longer be stopped

Chief medical officer Tony Holohan at yesterday's Covid-19 media briefing at the Department of Health on Baggot St in Dublin. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

A fourth wave of Covid-19 can no longer be stopped, public health officials have warned, as the death toll hit the grim total of 5,000.

Chief medical officer Tony Holohan said we are now in a race against time to get people vaccinated, but even the most optimistic modelling sets out “very significant transmission” in the coming weeks with new cases, hospitalisations, and deaths peaking in September.